<p>The GBIF portal offers a range of services to support the use of biodiversity data in other applications and analyses.  Over the coming months additional services and tools will be added.  In all cases, users of the portal are expected to use the data in accordance with the <a href="datauseagreement">GBIF Data Use Agreement</a>.</p>

<p>The following sections describe the existing services for using data from the portal.</p>

<h4>Download of data</h4>

<p>The <a href="../occurrences/">Occurrence Search</a> page offers the option to download occurrence records in various formats.  After searching for records of interest, select the <strong>Download records</strong> link from the <strong>Actions</strong> box and follow the instructions.  These instructions will explain currently available options and download formats.</p>

<h4>Web services</h4>

<p>The portal includes a range of web services that can be used by other portals and applications to directly access XML formatted GBIF data.  The services currently available include:

<ul><li> <strong> Taxon data service</strong> - This service (<a href="../ws/rest/taxon">http://data.gbif.org/ws/rest/taxon</a>) provides a range of options for viewing information on the names and classifications used by the different datasets that are accessible through the GBIF portal.  Data are returned using the <a href="http://www.tdwg.org/">TDWG</a> <a href="http://www.tdwg.org/activities/tnc/tcs-schema-repository/">Taxon Concept Schema</a>.  See the <a href="../ws/rest/taxon">documentation</a>.
</li><li> <strong>Occurrence record data service</strong> - This service (<a href="../ws/rest/occurrence">http://data.gbif.org/ws/rest/occurrence</a>) provides a range of filters for selecting occurrence records.  The currently supported response formats include <a href="http://www.tdwg.org/">TDWG</a> <a href="http://wiki.tdwg.org/twiki/bin/view/DarwinCore/WebHome">Darwin Core</a> records and <a href="http://code.google.com/apis/kml/documentation/">KML</a> (for use with <a href="http://earth.google.com/">Google Earth</a>).  See the <a href="../ws/rest/occurrence">documentation</a>.

</li><li> <strong>Occurrence density data service</strong> - This service (<a href="../ws/rest/density">http://data.gbif.org/ws/rest/density</a>) returns summary counts of occurrence records by one-degree cell for a single taxon, country, dataset, data publisher or data network.  The currently supported response formats include a simple XML format and <a href="http://code.google.com/apis/kml/documentation/">KML</a> (for use with <a href="http://earth.google.com/">Google Earth</a>).  See the <a href="../ws/rest/density">documentation</a>.
</li><li> <strong>Dataset metadata service</strong> - This service (<a href="../ws/rest/resource">http://data.gbif.org/ws/rest/resource</a>) returns metadata relating to the datasets accessible through the GBIF portal.  The currently supported response format is a simple XML structure.  See the <a href="../ws/rest/resource">documentation</a>.

</li><li> <strong>Data publisher metadata service</strong> - This service (<a href="../ws/rest/provider">http://data.gbif.org/ws/rest/provider</a>) returns metadata on the data publishers sharing data through the GBIF portal.  The currently supported response format is a simple XML structure.  See the <a href="../ws/rest/provider">documentation</a>.
</li><li> <strong>Data network metadata service</strong> - This service (<a href="../ws/rest/network">http://data.gbif.org/ws/rest/network</a>) returns metadata on the data networks connected to the GBIF portal.  The currently supported response format is a simple XML structure.  See the <a href="../ws/rest/network">documentation</a>.</li></ul>
</p><br/>

<p>Note that responses from these web services include styling instructions to make them easier to read and use in a web browser.  The web service documentation includes instructions for disabling this feature if it is not desired.</p>